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assessing tools
http://rubistar.4teachers.org

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you can create your project with https://prezi.com.  As a teacher, the biggest challenge in collaborative learning lies in summative assessment. Many of us will agree that marking is the worst task in our job! It's tough at times to persuade kids that they should not identify with "the mark" and feel frustrated. A mark may gauge the level of an individual performance, for sure not a human being as a whole!  I think that once you start working as a guide and a facilitator, you soon come to realise that our current system is not yet suitable for that: you cannot be coach and referee at the same time. If you are a coach, you obviously feel like part of a team!  This is why I have introduced more and more peer reviews: students can give mutual support and feedback, and I sometimes participate to the same activity anonymously.  We frequently use simple quizzes or quick-check questions, which we do possibly online. Kahoot, Socrative or Quizalize are our favourite tools for quick-checks. In a project on Jane Austen, each group invented secret questions for classmates and played a round on Kahoot. We also use ongoing peer-reviews during presentations: students use their smartphones to evaluate individual or group presenters. Google-sheets are then forwarded via Edmodo, but evaluations remain anonymous.

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you can design quizz in Kahoot! you can develop a checklist with rubrics for assessing students about these items of our project: creativity, autonomy, cooperation, quality of work and presentation of the project. These items were presented to students at the beginning of the project. A numeric scale from 5/Very Good to 1/Very Poor was used which allowed teachers to assign a grade to each student involved in the project. you can use several assessment methods: Individual assessment was done by the analysis and observation of the work carried out by the students and by their participation and contribution to the project. Students prepared and maintained individual portfolios, using Lino and Padlet applications. Students were organized into small working groups, and asked to perform collaborative tasks. Peer review was done by students in collaboration with their partners. For this purpose we used TeamUp, TeamUp allows the publication of materials produced by each group of students, which are then made available for review by the other groups of students. TeamUp records students’ group work through audio transcripts, which can be used for the presentation of their conclusions. I can identify the following benefits of collaborative learning assessment: 1 – It is a student-centered process 2 - Promotes students involvement in the assessment tasks 3 – Promotes students responsibility and motivation towards the learning process 4 – Promotes self-reflection and students argumentation 5 - Students can learn socially from each other 6 – Promotes digital literacy through the use of digital web 2.0 applications 7 – Promotes development of 21st century skills and competences The main challenges I experienced in assessing collaborative learning are: 1 - Changing role of the teacher/students in the classroom. 2 - Group dynamics: students must have a positive attitude and receptivity towards their involvement in the assessment 3 - Group assessment versus individual assessment 4 - Management of teams/groups of students so that everyone participates and collaborates in the activities 5 - Time available to prepare and apply assessment of collaboration in the classroom So, these are my proposed solutions to solve those problems: 1 - Assessing collaborative learning requires regular communication between peers and peers and teachers. 2 - Digital tools can be used to support teacher’s planning activities. The use of collaborative digital tools enables teachers to efficiently observe student groups and deliver feedback. Digital tools can also support students to publish and share their assessments. 3 - Reorganizing the classroom space can introduce more collaboration-friendly dynamics in the classroom 4 - More interdisciplinary teaching and sharing of materials amongst teachers also facilitates collaborative teaching

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In collaborative learning when students’ assessment is based on their personal performance it results in a reduction of team spirit, whereas when evaluation is based on teamwork, some members become disengaged and leave the others to carry out the work. Students have to be informed about the evaluation criteria at the beginning of the activity and create the right conditions in order for them to participate actively in the assessment process. Evaluation in each group can be made using three different factors: individual performance, group performance and the group’s functionality.  As far as is concerned, the assessment took place on the written outcome During the writing process you can walk between groups overseeing their writings discreetly, trying to see if they satisfied the requirements of poetic forms and guiding them, if necessary, through advisory feedback. At the end of the presentation, a discussion followed at plenary level. You can ask questions, which helped students to implement a peer assessment, such as: What point did you like most in the other group’s presentation? Did you find something different in their performance? What would you keep from their presentation , which would you like to use yourself in a future performance? This worked really well with the children. What is amazing here is that they didn’t only receive positive feedback with satisfaction but they also accepted negative feedback not as an arid critical statement but as a step that will make them better by improving their subsequent performance and practice. Collaborative learning provides many opportunities for metacognitive analysis, which contributes to the self-assessment of students' thinking on the quality configuration of the team work. So at plenary level you can pose questions, like: Did you devise a plan before starting to work? What difficulties did you experience that you didn’t expect? Is there something you would change if you could start from the beginning? Concerning the groups’ functionality you can try to see whether there was a cooperative and supportive attitude between the members of the group walking among groups, observeing and taking notes throughout the process of the team work, focusing on which group was not working well thus making it possible for yo to restore functioning in a stimulating and encouraging way . Furthermore, each student completed a self-assessment sheet to evaluate his/her personal contribution to the group functionality. They answered questions, like: Did I participate in an active way providing information and ideas for my group? Did I listen carefully to what the other members suggested? Did I applaud and encourage the efforts of other members? Did I do something to alleviate the tension and the conflicts within the team? Pupils were asked to answer on a scale including the options: YES – LITTLE – NO).

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Module 3: assessment
Guidelines for Assessing Collaborative Learning, developed by Doctor Luis Valente, from the University of Minho in Portugal.
Assessment has multiple goals, as check its impact on strengthening the improvement of learning collaboratively. It has to help students position themselves in the learning process and become aware of the extent of their efforts to achieve objectives. Assessment also needs to make learners take responsibility for their own learning by helping to regulate their efforts, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and enable them to seek help in order to overcome difficulties. It is crucial that assessment doesn’t discourage learners, but rather strengthens their commitment to learning. Assessment should encourage students to learn collaboratively and not encourage competition. It should also contribute to a collective conscience promoting the belief that we learn better in groups because we can overcome our difficulties more easily when we help one another. Everyone who teaches knows well that in the process of teaching something to somebody else, you come to understand better the subject of what you’re teaching yourself. Assessment should encourage students to benefit from this process. The effectiveness of the message given to students is also key to keep in mind when designing and implementing assessment. Feedback regarding assessment must be brief, clear and timely. Self-assessment and peer assessment can be fast, timely and objective when assessing collaborative learning if: (1) it is implemented in parallel with learning activities, (2) it uses the same language used by group participants, (3) it is conducted diplomatically so as not to create obstacles in the social relationship of the group. Ultimately, assessment has to be useful for learning; it must make sense for those being assessed and not only for those assessing. Purpose of assessment. The assessment’s internal and external credibility, legitimacy and reliability recognized by stakeholders has a significant impact on its value and potential. Let’s consider three types of assessment, each with a different purpose: Formative Assessment, can help to improve teaching strategies and students’ study because it provides very contextualized feedback both to students individually and to groups, as well as to their teachers. Simple assessment tools can be used for formative assessment, as long as the goals are clearly defined. It is necessary that those involved realize the importance of the selected assessment tools, and acknowledge their value. Feedback must be immediate, to have direct effect on the learning process, so it’s important to use assessment tools which are easy to build, easy to use and provide easy data analysis. (b) Self-assessment should focus on individuals and their commitment, motivation, engagement in teamwork and their ability to achieve personal goals. Group goals can be formulated using checklists or progress level scales applied over a pre-defined timeline systematically or at particular milestones while carrying out projects or tasks. (c) Finally, Summative assessment aims to provide a formal academic record of students’ learning progress and to establish proficiency levels. Often summative assessment is confined to tests only, which is not fair. If students are requested and expected to engage in group work, develop projects and present results, build blogs or other digital products, then summative assessment should consider these type of “artifacts” as learning outcomes to be assessed. For summative assessment to consider these learning outcomes, we need to assign a weight to each of them in the final summative assessment, so as to take account of students’ work as a whole. It may be that you are working in a school which does not integrate these types of learning outcomes into the final assessment. This may indicate a need for change through negotiation with relevant stakeholders, and crucially ensuring that students are involved in defining the assessment model.

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The CCL ( Creative Classroooms Lab project ) scenarios have been developed by teachers in collaboration with policy makers and experts in order to help teachers design meaningful learning activities using innovative pedagogical approaches.  The scenarios have also been implemented and evaluated in eight countries across Europe. A Learning Scenario consists of 7 phases: These 7 phases help you as a teacher to plan and structure your learning activities in advance.

1.  “Dream”, students can brainstorm, think freely and share ideas.

2.  “Explore” phase, students collect information on a certain topic.

3. In the “Map” phase, they structure their thoughts and ideas and seek to understand how they are related.

4. In the “Make” phase, students develop or create a product or practise an activity.

5. One possible activity for students in the “Ask” phase is to interview experts and stakeholders.

6. In the “Remake” phase students replan or revisit their product, on the basis of the feedback or further information they received.

7. In the last phase “Show”, students publish and present the results of their work.

CO-LAB, responsible for this MOOC, has selected 4 of the CCL learning scenarios which we think are particularly s uited as a starting point for teachers to reflect and design collaborative learning activities. The CCL Learning Scenarios we have selected present various learning activities often supporting a specific pedagogical approach, such as collaborative learning, personalized learning or flipped classroom learning. These four Learning Scenarios can be used in any subject. Where relevant however, subjects and topics to be covered are suggested. You will also find in the resource section of this module two additional collaborative learning scenarios developed by our Irish CO-LAB partner, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. These scenarios are based on the same template created within the CCL project. These Irish examples are subject specific; one concerning learning in physics, and the other concerning learning in art and music. The Irish NCCA scenarios each begin with an overview to provide users with the overall context, as well as a resource section at the end. Moreover, you will find related resources to the scenario ‘Asteroids, impacts and craters’ also available in the resources section of Module 2. It is important to stress that all 6 scenarios are only intended to serve as inspiration for teachers to develop their own collaborative learning activities. When you come to doing this yourselves, remember to keep in mind all the important steps and questions presented by Professor Deirdre Butler earlier in this module. The scenarios in the resoures section are there to give you some ideas of the type of learning approaches, activities and even content you might wish to cover when designing your own collaborative learning lesson plan. Their general nature enables teachers to adapt these scenarios according to their specific needs, taking into account the school curriculum, the age, the level of pupils and the subject taught. So, we invite you to access these 6 example scenarios in the resource section of Module 2 and to use them for inspiration for the collaborative learning lesson plan you will be required to submit at the end of the course. You will also find an empty scenario template in the resource section which you can use to help you reflect on the design of your own collaborative learning scenario.

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Interdependent work Further examples: yes if Group members each research a different internal system (e.g. circulation, digestion, etc.) of frogs. Students then work together to dissect a frog and write a lab report about the dissection, identifying frog parts and the systems to which they belong. Students rely on each other's work in order to successfully identify what they see during the dissection. Not if Group members work together to research frogs, but each student conducts their own dissection and writes their own lab report. Students work together on the research component, but the products do not require input or participation from others. Students each use their own networked device to contribute coordinate points that must collectively create the shape of a star. Each student’s contribution is necessary so the group can create the completed shape. Not if One student uses a device to plot coordinate points and create a star shape, with input from group members. Only one student is plotting coordinates; the others may contribute, but they could also disengage without preventing the group from completing the product. yes if Students create a tourist website presenting the history, culture, attractions, and accommodations of their local area. Each individual might create a different piece of the overall website, but students need to work together to determine how to organize the information to create the best possible website. Not if Students each create a webpage about the history, culture, attractions, or accommodations of their local area that will be linked to the class homepage. Students do not have to strategize together in any particular way. yes if Students use Mouse Mischief to create a diagram showing the food chain in a vernal pond ecosystem. Each student controls a particular species and students must work together to place each species in its appropriate niche in the food chain. Students must work with each other to complete a comprehensive and accurate representation of the food chain. Not if Students use Mouse Mischief to identify which species in the vernal pond ecosystem are carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores, by placing each species in the appropriate list. Any student can use their mouse to move any species to any list; students do not need to work together in any specific way

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Rubric
We use a rubric to examine whether students are working with others on the learning activity to discuss an issue, solve a problem, create a product and what's the quality of that collaboration.   The students work together if Pairs of them give each other feedback and not if Students do their work alone. A small group discusses an issue together and not if A whole class discusses an issue. A student uses Microsoft Lync or Skype to interview a student in another town via the Internet. Students use OneNote to share their story drafts and give each other feedback and not if  Each student creates his/her own story and sends it to the educator for feedback.  It is SHARED RESPONSIBILITY if  Students conduct a lab experiment together, when they have joint responsibility for carrying out the lab experiment and not just if they give each other feedback. This activity structure implies that one student “owns” the work, and the other is only helping. it is shared responsibility if A student works with a peer in another country to develop a joint website using Microsoft Office 365. The students share responsibility for the development of the website. Not if A student interviews a peer in another country about the local weather. This is a task that students conduct together, but they do not have mutual responsibility for its outcome.  Students make substantive decisions together when they must resolve important issues that will guide their work together. Substantive decisions are decisions that shape the content, process, or product of students’ work.For example when  Students in teams are preparing for a debate and must decide what side of the issue they will argue for. This is a content decision that will shape their work together, and students must negotiate their ideas. But if Students work together to identify capital cities of particular countries in Europe. This decision does not affect the rest of their work so it's not a substantive decisions. Yes when Pairs of students are developing a presentation about climate change and must decide what causes to write about. Students must decide together what the most important causes are; this decision will shape their presentation. but not if Pairs of students choose which animal they will study. Students will probably make this decision based only on personal preference, not on their knowledge of the subject. yes when Student teams are conducting a research project and must decide on their own workplan and roles on the team. Students must plan the process of their work. Not if Student teams assign roles to team members based on the list of roles the educator has defined. The educator has planned the process of their work, not the students. yes if Pairs of students decide how to shape their presentation to a particular audience. This is a fundamental design decision that will affect the nature of their overall product. not if Pairs of students select a colour scheme for their presentation. Decisions about surface features are not considered substantive decisions that fundamentally affect product design.  Students’ work is interdependent when all students must participate in order for the team to succeed, the work has to be divided fairly. Most interdependent work involves two levels of accountability:
Individual accountability: each individual on the team is responsible for a task that he or she must complete in order for the group to do its work. The role of each student on the team is essential.
Group accountability: the students must work together to produce the final product or outcome. Students must negotiate and agree on the process, design, and conclusions of their work. It is important that the work is structured in a way that requires students to plan together and take the work of all team members into account so that their product or outcome is complete and fits together. For example, if each student is responsible for a page of a presentation, and in the final presentation the pages are simply assembled together, this is NOT considered interdependent. The final presentation IS considered interdependent if the students’ contributions must work together to tell a story or communicate an overarching idea; in this case, students’ individual pages must be designed as parts of a coherent whole.

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code 1: work on your own
code 2:  work in pairs or groups without shared responsibility. I might just want them to give each other feedback.
code 3:  they do have shared responsibility, without making substantive decisions.
code 4:  they do make substantive decisions, but their work isn't interdependent?
code 5:    when you are reaching the goal youhad set: It depends on where the student is at, what you are trying to do, what is the learning outcome, and you have to be in charge of your learning design. And as you work with others in the staff, what is the priority.
The beauty of the rubric is that it can actually be used to design learning activities and as a means of assessment because you can stand back and look at students work and find the evidence to demonstrate that they actually had been collaborating by sharing responsibility or making interdependent decisions etc..
Using a rubric you can design the lesson building in the collaboration from the start, step by step by step, as opposed to looking at it afterwards and realising, well actually, there was not much collaboration there, and having to re-do it half way through your unit.

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In order to design a good learning activity aiming to collaborate, we have to be able to describe the type and quality of the collaboration:  1) do they have shared responsibility?Responsibility is shared if the people are equally responsible, and mutually responsible for the tasks. Otherwise it is only working together. 2) Are they making substantive decisions? They make substantive decisions when they have to resolve important issues that will guide their work together. Important issues about the content, the process or the product. Content: Students must use their knowledge of an issue to make a decision that affects the academic content of their work together, such as taking a stance on a topic they will then write about, or deciding on the hypothesis they will test. Process: Students must plan what they will do, when to do it, what tools they will use, or the roles and responsibilities of people on the team. Product: Students must make fundamental design decisions that affect the nature and usability of their product.  Initially, as we have to build up their expertise, design tasks have not to be too much complicated to avoid it leaves them overwhelmed. So at the beginning it would be just one issue: you may make them decide on how they are going to do the task; the process. Or they could have freedom over the content or about the product that will develop in response to the task. And as they get more expert, we will actually be able to  give them the responsibility to decide maybe the process and the product.

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Due to my very few experience in teaching, I can't report any collaboration activity really carried out with any class but I can imagine to do it during one of my business administration classes. For example I could divide my students in groups of 4/5 and ask them to draw up the annual or biannual balance sheet. Each of them has to see to a part of the sheet and to revise the work of a peer. At the end, if the result is a high level of earning, the company will distribute part of it between share holders and employers. Otherwise, in case of losses the company will face a risky stock market conditions. This work included a lot of collaboration, because the assignement cannot be delivered without the contribution of all of the team members. The task would enhances social competencies as persuasion and negotiation, feedback, listening, consensus, leadership, self-evaluation, team working, responsibility, motivation, self esteeme.

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To have students collabotating is not just put them in groups sharing work among them. Collaboration  means all team members tackle the problems together in a coordinated effort. They work together  toward a common goal, giving feedback each other, sharing responsibility, actually making substantive decisions about the content of the process of the product, actually creating, so that they work interdependently so that each piece depends on the other for its actual successful completion.  Teacher is needed to be a facilitator for learning by creating and managing meaningful learning experiences and stimulating learners thinking through real-world problems. With teacher help students develop the skills of persuasion and negotiation, feedback, listening, consensus, leadership, self-evaluation, team working

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Even if in 21st century, collaborative teaching and learning is rare! the reasons are:
- lack of understanding of what it really means
- existing policy condition. But now  it's essential prepare the students well for the workplace, where they are likely to work on teams with others to accomplish tasks that are too complex for individuals to do on their own. In today’s interconnected world of business, real project work often requires collaboration across companies (e.g., a collaboration between a pharmaceutical company and a chemical engineering company to produce a new vaccine) or with people in a different part of the world.